CHAPTER I.
GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE OF ITALY.
Italia! oh, Italia! thou who hast
The fatal gift of beauty, which became
A funeral dower of present woes and past,
On thy sweet brow is sorrow plough'd by shame,
And annals traced in characters of flame.--_Byron_.
1. The outline of Italy presents a geographical unity and completeness
which naturally would lead us to believe that it was regarded as a
whole, and named as a single country, from the earliest ages. This
opinion would, however, be erroneous; while the country was possessed
by various independent tribes of varied origin and different customs,
the districts inhabited by each were reckoned separate states, and it
was not until these several nations had fallen under the power of one
predominant people that the physical unity which the peninsula
possesses was expressed by a single name. Italy was the name
originally given to a small peninsula in Brut'tium, between the
Scylacean and Napetine gulfs; the name was gradually made to
comprehend new districts, until at length it included the entire
country lying south of the Alps, between the Adriatic and Tuscan seas.
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